1. MaimoonaAzam, HumairaMasood, Maryam Irshad, AmenahQureshi, HasanaShabbir
Ms. AsmaMansoor
Post-war Literature
31 May 2013
Ted Hughes‟ conception of Nature is marked by a recognition of violence
and aggression that corresponds with the general mood of his age. Discuss.
The poetry of the modern age is still, somewhat „romantic‟ in its essence as it takes an
insight into the issues of humanity on individual basis and judge the human condition with a
personal interest and subjectivity. Ted Hughes is one of the poets who is sensitive to the „poet‟s
role in the society‟. His works however, do this job in a subtle manner, with animal scenario on
the surface while human dilemmas below the skin(Dodsworth, 281). The post-war age, of which
he was a product, was marked by faithlessness, despair, anguish of nothingness and aimlessness.
All these traits contributed in embedding an aggression and violence in the heart of the common
man.
Ted Hughes poetry highlights modern man‟s fragmented and isolated nature and his
subsequent alienation from the natural world. The basic aim of his poetry is to integrate the lost
essence of nature in man‟s distorted life. Hughes poetry hints on modern aspects of life it gives
importance to the problem of man‟s sense of superfluity. He laments on modern man‟s inability
to use his natural instincts. Hughes is of the opinion that due to the presence of cultural crisis,
man has lost his mooring and bearing in nature.

2. Hughes major poetic work is based on nature and myth. His obsessions linger on animals,
their energies and the darker side of their nature that is filled with violence and aggression.
Hughes skillfully incorporates these energies of nature in man‟s world. His poetic mission aims
at exorcising the evil of self-consciousness that is at the bottom of all fractured souls. Here
Hughes takes an attire of an inspired visionary and his poems takes a new dimension of
mysticism.
Hughes celebration of animal life affirms the importance of man‟s relation with
landscape. Hughes view the modern aspect of life and comments that modern man has discard
his world of imagination and basic instincts at the cost of his own existence. Moreover he
confirms that man‟s slavery to modern science and technology is the fundamental drawback
which results in his alienation to natural world. Hughes beholds animal life which is distinct
from the life of human civilization. Hughes‟ animal poems serve as a liberal force from the
repressed aggressive nature of man which is created by the society itself.
Hughes poetry comprehends nonhuman life of flora and fauna in a setting of weather and
landscape. In all his poems Hughes assumes himself as a perceiver conditioning terrifying
qualities to nature. The tone in his poems is that of an omniscient narrator that gives a sense of
supremacy and subjectivity. In his poems animals act as a metaphor for his views of life. The
innocent savagery and bestial nature of animals reflects the conflict between violence and
tenderness the manners prevalent in human world for which human beings strive for ascendency
and success.
Animals in Hughes poems have been adorned with various roles like human beings have
in real world. They strive for the survival of the fittest; they also express their royal nature and

3. supremacy over other animals. More often they act as an inspiration in the mind of a poet to
write a creative artifact. All these animals have a distinct feature in them that makes them more
attractive to the readers mind. They have a trickster nature like crow; they are cunning like fox,
kingly like hawk and ferocious like pike.
Hughes‟ poem “The Thought fox” is a creative journey of writing a poem. In his poem,
Hughes has used his imagistic vision, and blended it with personal consciousness “a psycho-
psychological process of imaginative projection” (Fass, p.60) to summon a fox. The fox
metaphorically stands for the inspiration, for the poet whose thoughts is initially elusive and
cannot be captured in a single sheet of paper. Hughes has established a contact between nature
and man; he has juxtaposed the physical land scape with the psychological ecology of the poet‟s
mind.
Pike is a self-explanatory title in itself. The poem celebrates the merciless nature of this
fish which is „killer from the egg‟. This fish, since old times, is waiting for its prey. As it rose
„slowly‟ „watching‟ the poet, it charged him for the crime of criticizing it before looking at
himself. Its accusing eye ignites guilt in Man for being mercilessly violent against Nature when
he was not even designed to do so. On the other hand, he condemns the deadly nature of Pike
which is inherent and necessary for its survival. Pike seems to be in a competition of predation
with Man. Since it is the post-war age, the world has witnessed the extreme bestiality on part of
Human. He is no less in instilling „horror‟ as this creature. Like Pike does not even stop to kill
one of its own fellows for its needs, Man is no less good. Hughes, under the cover, is actually
severely mocking the so-called civilized, modern man. In playing the Pike‟s advocate, Hughes
rests his case against Man of his time and leaves a room for reflection.

4. Most of the Hughes‟ poetry is considered violent. He celebrates the bestial ugliness of the
nature abolishing the Romantic themes of pantheism and nature as a healer. His works reveal the
„manifold potentials of violence‟ rooted in human race. Although the natural environment is
alien to the „contemporary urbanized society‟, the humanity, „at heart is as primitive, primal and
predatory, as anything in that environment‟(Holloway, 97).

5. Works Cited
Holloway, John. The literary scene.The New Pelican Guide to English Literature.Vol.8. Boris
Ford, ed. London.Penguin Books. 1983. Print
Dodsworth, Martin. Ted Hughes and Geoffrey Hill.The New Pelican Guide to English
Literature.Vol.8. Boris Ford, ed. London.Penguin Books. 1983. Print
Hughes, Ted. Crow: From the Life and Songs of a crow. London, Faber. 1970. Print
www.poemhunter.com/ted-hughes/bioghraphy